Ben is the Director of the Open Door: Veteran Transition, Integration, Wellbeing research initiative in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work. Open Door is an Australasian research hub that brings together veterans, scholars and practitioners together around key research, service provision and policy/legislation initiatives. Open Door is connected to other veteran research hubs across the five-eye nations.

As a Veteran Ben's research is focussed on the health and wellbeing of serving personnel and Veterans. He conducts sociological and criminological research on the ADF and DVA including institutional abuse in the ADF, veteran suicide, and veteran transition into higher education. Ben also researches men's violence toward other men and is using Virtual Reality as a pedagogical tool for education for violence prevention.

Ben writes about the cultural history of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Of particular interest is military culture and crime and the military. He is currently Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Grant titled "Institutional Abuse and Organisational Reform within the ADF (1969-). Ben is currently the lead CI on 2 grants investigating veteran transition and education. These studies explore how effective tertiary education is as a transition pathway, The second grant funded by the NCSEHE studies the ways universities understand veterans and govern their place in the university.